Ashley J. Tellis, currently a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, served as a senior adviser to R. Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs in the George W. Bush administration. In that role, Tellis was intimately involved in negotiating the civil nuclear agreement with India.

As for the arduous negotiations between the U.S. and Indian sides over the reprocessing of spent uranium supplied to India under the nuclear deal, Tellis says he is confident an agreement will soon be reached. "This is not something that keeps me up at night," he says.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday described as regrettable the leak of the Liberhan Commission’s report that indicts senior leaders of the BJP for their role in the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992.

First lady Michelle Obama's strapless, floor-length, champagne-coloured gown - the creation of Indian-born designer Naeem Khan - was accessorised with shiny Indian churis. The deep purple flower arrangements at each dinner table paid homage to the peacock, India's state bird. And, perhaps most notably, in a sign of bipartisan support in Washington for the U.S.-India relationship, guests at President Barack Obama's first state dinner, held in honour of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, dined off plates belonging to George W. Bush and Bill Clinton's state china services.

President Barack Obama has assured Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the US-China joint statement issued on his visit to Beijing earlier this month was not an endorsement of Chinese mediation in the India-Pakistan dispute.

Dark clouds and a cold, steady drizzle played spoiler on Tuesday as the Obama White House was forced to scrap plans for a lavish outdoor welcome for its first official guest and move proceedings into the ornate, but confined space of the East Room.

Building on the special relationship forged between New Delhi and Washington by his predecessor, US president Barack Obama today reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to the full implementation of the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement and also assured India that it had no intention to mediate in its dispute with Pakistan.

President Barack Obama’s administration on Monday sought to assure Pakistan that the grand welcome reserved for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Washington this week should in no way be interpreted as a “diminution of the importance” the US attaches to Islamabad.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says Pakistan has not done enough to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks, and when asked in an interview whether he believes he has a partner for peace in Islamabad, he replied that he was unsure.

The first substantive bilateral engagement between US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the White House on Tuesday is expected to cover a broad range of issues and set the framework for the US-India relationship.

The US on Wednesday sought to defuse a mini crisis on the eve of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Washington, after New Delhi lashed out at President Barack Obama's support for a wider role for China in South Asia, by assuring New Delhi that while it is interested in a relationship with China, this does not come at the expense of its ties with India.

A top Republican lawmaker has turned down a much-coveted invitation from the White House to dine with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and the Democratic leader in the Senate will also be conspicuous by his absence.

President Barack Obama has entrusted a young Indian American doctor with the task of leading the US Government's foreign aid agency, which is the central component of the President's plan to repair America's image overseas.

A leading human rights group on Monday described the failure of successive Indian governments to bring to justice those responsible for the anti-Sikh backlash that followed the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi 25 years ago as a “severe blot on India's legal system and democracy.”

Anxious to bridge the yawning credibility gap in the recently reappointed administration in Kabul, the Obama administration is working behind the scenes to persuade Afghan President Hamid Karzai to work with his main election rival in a so called post-election “compact.”

There may be a silver lining to the dark cloud that hangs over the legitimacy of a second term for Hamid Karzai.

A decision by Karzai's top challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, to abandon plans to participate in a runoff with his former boss paved the way for Karzai to embark on another five-year term at the helm. A frustrated Abdullah dropped out critical of a system he believes is rigged in favour of the president. But the former foreign minister's actions have led to a situation in which Karzai retains the presidency without the support of a majority of his countrymen (and women).

That Karzai's powers had been significantly diminished well before the election was no secret except to the Afghan president, who has spent the past five years holed up in the Arg, his writ crashing against the walls of the presidential palace, while a resurgent Taliban has regained control of vast swathes of his country. The August election, in which investigators later found almos…